President Emmanuel Macron's government on Tuesday rejected a new demand by unions to rethink a deeply unpopular pension bill, infuriating labour leaders who said the government must find a way out of the crisis.
Meanwhile, as protesters across France staged generally peaceful marches on a tenth nationwide day of strikes and protests, clashes broke out in some areas.
"We have proposed a way out ... and it's intolerable that we are being stonewalled again," the head of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, told reporters at the start of a rally in Paris. But hours later, government spokesman Oliver Veran rejected the idea, saying the cabinet was willing to discuss other policy changes, but not review the pension bill.
In the last big day of protests on Thursday, "Black Bloc" anarchists smashed shop windows, demolished bus stops and ransacked a McDonald's restaurant in Paris, with similar violence in other cities.That was some of the worst street violence in years in France, bringing scenes reminiscent of unrest by supporters of the yellow-vest movement during Macron's first term.
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